GRRL PAL Interview: “Dildos Just Popped Up All Over Our Screen”

In a somewhat unusual move, Australian synth pop duo GRRL PAL have promised to release a song a month for the duration of 2015. It’s an artistic challenge and an effort to maintain interest in their sublime music. On top of that they hope to release two EPs this year, with the first coming in March/April. Phew! Jay LeKat, singer with the duo, took some time out recently from dancing around gardens to talk to Overblown about the success of ‘Paradise’, dildos, and accidentally promising to release a track a month for all of 2015.

Overblown: Tell me a little bit about the background to the band. How did you two begin making music together?

Jay: We went to high school together and worked on a few musical projects together and then one day Danny asked me to help him out on some tracks that he had been writing and it worked really well so we formed GRRLPAL.

Overblown: When I first saw the spelling of your name, I immediately linked it to the ‘riot grrrl’ punk movement of the late 80s and early 90s. Is there a link, or am I suffering from an over active imagination?

Jay: Well, Danny wanted to call us gal pal but when we Googled that, dildos just popped up all over our screen and we don’t have enough money to get sued by sex toy companies so we were really sneaky and changed gal to grrl… We became GRRL PAL. (A much better name in my opinion! – ed)

Overblown: You intend to release one song a month for a year. This is a novel approach. Why did you decide to release your music in this manner?

Jay: We decided we had a lot of content and we accidentally told a blog that we were going to maybe release a song a month… and they posted about it… so we just stuck to it. I also said she would go on writing strike if we didn’t start releasing music. Lol.

Overblown: Another band I’ve interviewed, Terrorista, have a similar approach where they are releasing a cassette single every few months with two tracks on it. They feel it will encourage more media coverage. Was this a consideration in your decision to release one song a month?

Jay: Yeah definitely, we do think it helps to keep the media in the loop by putting out new music consistently. We wanted to keep people interested by releasing a new song every month by keeping people talking about us and maybe looking forward to the next release if they liked the previous one. And it keeps us writing!

Danny K and JayLeKat of Grrl Pal hanging out. Casually.

Overblown: By the end of the year you will have an LP worth of material. Would you consider a more traditional release at that stage?

Jay: We are hoping to release all of the songs on vinyl later on in the year but for now we will just be grouping them into EP’s as they are released.

Overblown: What is your opinion of music consumption in 2015? Is the physical musical release on its way out?

Jay: People consume music differently these days and its made differently these days. You don’t really have to have money a studio because we can do it at home. People don’t really buy music any more either… I guess we really just wanted to put ourselves out there create some attention. Maybe the idea of an album is on the way out… unless you’re Taylor Swift!

Overblown: ‘Paradise’ has now amassed over 140,000 listens on Soundcloud. Were you surprised by the track’s success?

Jay: YES! We were super surprised, you just never know which song people are going to relate to the most because we love all of our song equally.

Overblown: The follow up singles to ‘Paradise’, ‘NGHT’ (my personal favourite) and ‘Dare’ have not enjoyed the same success. Has this been a disappointment?

Jay: We aren’t at all disappointed! We are so glad you like NGHT… it’s one of our favourites. I guess its amazing to see what people are drawn to. It does feel good that we did it by ourselves just us two sitting in a basement in Perth Australia…

Overblown: Your video for ‘NGHT’ looks like it was a lot of fun to make. How did that come about?

Jay: We wanted to come up with an achievable concept that would still be fun to watch, our friend Tim pulled it together really well and we had so much fun making it.

Overblown: What are GRRL PAL’s plans for 2015?

Jay: Keep going! We really want to make it over the Eastern States to play some shows because we feel so far away from the rest of Australia! We are just going to keep on writing, releasing and keep on playing shows!

Jamie Coughlan is the founder of Overblown. He talks a lot about himself and is totally pretentious. Terrible with personal finances. Loves beer gardens. He has written for the RTE Guide, A Music Blog, Yea?, The Thin Air, Gigwise, and is a contributor to The Tipping Point.

Overblown is all about subterreanean music. We aim to champion bands and record labels that we are passionate about and are overlooked and undervalued by the mainstream media machine, while still paying homage to the iconic bands and labels who laid and developed the groundwork for today’s emerging talent.